YOU CAN CALL THEM ‘SHAM YANKEES’

So you walked into Petco Park during batting practice Saturday, and for the first time in more than a decade, saw Yankees jerseys everywhere. Derek Jeter’s No. 2 to your left, Mark Teixeira’s No. 25 to your right, Ichiro’s No. 31 in the middle and, man — it was awesome.

What wasn’t awesome, however, was that none of those players was actually in the starting lineup and that the people sporting the jerseys were disappointed fans. Seriously, this team comes to San Diego for the first time since 2002 and a guy named Lyle Overbay is in the heart of the order?

Scam Yankees.

One night earlier, Overbay was batting cleanup, and even he admits he never saw that coming when he first dawned the pinstripes. Think about the history of that spot for a second: Gehrig, Maris, Jackson ... Overbay? It’s the baseball equivalent of John, Paul, George, and Bieber.

Nothing against Overbay personally — he seems like a fine fella who was honored to hit from the same spot in the lineup as his legendary predecessors.

But this is the New York Yankees, man. This is the franchise that has won 27 World Series titles while serving as Cooperstown’s farm system. And now you’ve got players such as Brent Lillbridge, Eduardo Nunez and Chris Stewart rounding out the order?

Jumbo Jacks on a Donovan’s menu.

That’s how it is these days for the Bronx Yawners, though. Their disabled list alone could win the National League West. No Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez or Kevin Youkilis. Jeter is out for the weekend with quad and calf issues. And because there is no designated hitter when a National League team hosts, Ichiro and Alfonso Soriano are never on the field at the same time.

Absences such as these serve as a bummer of epic proportions for fans like Mike Prestonise, who bought his tickets months ago thinking he’d see a Yankees team remotely intact. Instead, the Escondido resident spent Saturday watching a club as drab as their gray road unis.

“It’s very disappointing. I mean, Jeter has been the captain for like 100 years, right?” Prestonise said. “To have everything happen after I bought my tickets, and then see them come out last night (Friday) and get shellacked by the Padres?”

Sham Yankees.

Of course, you’d expect bones to be a little more brittle when you consider that the Yankees have 10 players on their active roster born in the 1970s, and one (Mariano Rivera) born in the ’60s. This isn’t a collection of Joltin’ Joe DiMaggios that used to battle Ted Williams’ Red Sox. In fact, if Williams were thawed out today and shuttled out to a Yankees game, he’d probably think that MLB launched a senior tour.

Rivera, Jeter and Ichiro may all be future Hall of Famers, Soriano, Youkilis and Andy Pettitte may each be multi-time All-Stars, but at this point in their careers, they’re all inching ever closer to swinging golf clubs instead of bats.

This may be why the Yankees entered Saturday nine games behind Boston in the American League East and 31/2 games out of a wild-card spot.